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Saturday, 29 October 2011

Grimm update, James Marsters' Wizard World Q&A and a new interview with Jane Espenson

Just a few updates today, but they're fun.

Grimm premiered to surprisingly strong ratings last night (6.5 million viewers, 2.1 million in the 18-49 demo), or as NBC puts it in the press release, the "largest non-sports 18-49 audience on the night by any network since last year's "New Year's Rockin' Eve" on ABC (2.8 rating)."

What makes this news particularly great is that the show aired opposite the most watched baseball game in the last seven years, and after one of the lowest rated episodes of Chuck ever (the show hit a series low in the key demo, according to TV by the Numbers).

NBC is re-airing the Grimm pilot tonight at 9 pm and the episode will also be shown on Syfy this Tuesday at 7 pm.

Here is the synopsis for next Friday's episode, "Bears Will Be Bears:"

A barbaric family history is revealed when Nick and Hank investigate a case of breaking and entering. Meanwhile, Nick assigns Eddy to look after Aunt Marie.

And a new teaser for the upcoming episodes, with Sasha Roiz:

James Marsters was at the Wizard World Mid-Ohio Comic Con last weekend. The Wizard World site has a video of his Q&A panel (embedded below). He talks about playing Barnabas on Caprica (at the 14 min. mark) and he also gets asked about Bryan Singer's Battlestar Galactica reboot (25 min.) and if he'd play Starbuck in it. Fun reaction to that one.

(As a sidenote, John Orloff, who is writing the new BSG movie, said in an interview recently that the film won't conflict with Ron Moore's BSG, but he wouldn't comment on Starbuck or say which gender she will be.)

Note to Bryan Singer: James would love to be in the film.

He also talks about his upcoming projects - a new film he is about to shoot in Utah, in which he plays a heartbroken villain (his words) - then Metal Hurlant Chronicles in France, the production of Frost/Nixon he will be doing in L.A. with Stacy Keach, more audio books, and possibly more appearances in Supernatural. He also explains why he probably won't be reprising his Torchwood character in Doctor Who.

The Advocate has an excellent new interview with Jane Espenson. Snippets below, more at the link.

There’s an assumption that writers’ rooms, especially those of sci-fi shows, are very male-centric. True?
I think you've phrased that exactly right – it's an assumption. In my experience, it's always been the writers' rooms of comedies that have been male-centric. Dramas, including sci-fi dramas, seem to be to be much more integrated. Original Trek had DC Fontana, for goodness sake, and there are certainly lots of female writers now who either are working on genre shows currently or who have in the past. Even just on shows I've worked on — top of my head — Marti Noxon and Rebecca Kirshner from Buffy, Amy Berg at Eureka, Doris Egan at Torchwood, Mo Tancharoan, Tracy Bellomo, Liz Craft and Sarah Fain from Dollhouse, Anne Cofell Saunders and Toni Graphia from Battlestar, and lots and lots more. It actually makes sense that sci-fi, which often builds on a philosophy of diversity, would be a leader in this way. The shows and movies in which women are unambiguous leaders are often sci-fi, so it makes sense that there are women who write these kinds of heroes.

What makes good sci-fi?
Characters. Great characters and having something to say.

Have you introduced a gay theme, storyline, or character into a show because you thought it would add to the story?
Gay rights is a cause close to my heart and it shows up in my writing a lot. I wrote the Battlestar Galactica webisodes in which it was revealed that Lt. Gaeta was in a same-sex relationship. And I wrote a lot of material for the character of Sam Adama on Caprica, a great example of a character whose sexuality was made clear but was a non-issue for everyone around him. And I'm currently co-writing a web series called Husbands that's a mainstream comedy built around a gay marriage. Up until now newlywed comedy has been defined as involving one man and one woman, but things are changing. The whole series is up now at HusbandsTheSeries.com and people can go there to watch all 11 mini-episodes. It's been extremely well received and we're currently waiting to find out about funding for going forward with more content.

And here are the first nine minutes from tomorrow's episode of Once Upon a Time (8 pm, ABC), "The Thing You Love Most" (from Spoiler TV):